in Magazine features Adventure Life's Cotopaxi service project trip

Adventure Life's Cotopaxi service project in Ecuador is featured in the November 2010 issue of LAN's in Magazine, a South American in-flight publication.Writer Vicki Stout traveled to Ecuador to participate in this adventure travel volunteer trip. Adventure Life's local guide Andrés drove Stout from Quito to the high Andes and "La Avenida de los Volcanoes." Cotopaxi is the world's tallest continually active volcano, and with a height of 19,347 feet, it stands as the second highest peak in Ecuador.After the drive on gravel and dirt roads, Stout describes the lodging for this adventure travel service experience:The bouncy trek culminates at El Porvenir, a sprawling, red adobe hacienda wearing roofs of thatch. Greeting us with a wide smile and a young child on one hip and another at her leg is María José Andrade. This is her home. She and her husband, Jorge Pérez, operate this and two other haciendas, collectively known as Tierra del Volcan. El Porvenir is surrounded by 5,000 acres that once belonged to his family. It’s a working hacienda of ample fields populated with horses, Andean fighting bulls and dairy cattle.A fire roars in the living room hearth as we settle in for tea and divine little empanadas. Roses, so prolific in this country that grows and exports them all over the world, are in abundance in this casual, warm and inviting setting with its earthy hues splashed by bright color. My room on the main floor is spacious with a wonderful picture window and a fireplace stacked with wood, awaiting just a match.Volunteers for the Cotopaxi service project take a horseback ride up Rumiñahui volcano, hike to waterfalls and zipline through the canopy of the Hacienda Santa Rita ecological reserve. Along the way, volunteers learn about conservation issues such as the paramo, or Ecuador's water source, as well as Cotopaxi National Park. Then volunteers plant trees as part of a restoration project at El Porvenir and assist with trail maintenance in the park to help preserve this Ecuadorian ecosystem.Adventure Life offers various group service projects in Ecuador: the three-day Cotopaxi Rural Schools Service Project, the three-day Cotopaxi Conservation Service Project, and the five-day Cotopaxi Group Service Project.Adventure Life is a Missoula, Montana-based adventure travel company that specializes in tours of Central and South America.South America's LAN Airlines produces in Magazine, which has received many international awards.